At least 37 people were killed and 35 others wounded when Taliban militants stormed Kandahar airport in southern Afghanistan, with one gunman still resisting security forces, the defence ministry said Wednesday.

"Nine insurgents have been killed, one other is injured and another one is still holding up against our forces," the ministry said.

"Unfortunately during the battle, 37 innocent Afghans were killed and 35 others injured," it added, without specifying how many of them were civilians.

Local residents said they had heard soldiers pleading with the insurgents to free women and children, who were screaming during the fighting that erupted shortly after sundown in the southern city on Tuesday.

One security official told AFP that the assailants held some civilians as "human shields", which had complicated their clearance operation.

The brazen raid on the sprawling compound, which also houses a joint NATO-Afghan base, is the second major Taliban assault in as many days in the city recognised as the birthplace of the Taliban.

The militants had managed to breach the first gate of the high-security complex and took up position in an old school building, engaging security forces in pitched firefights.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, with spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid saying on Twitter that "150 Afghan and foreign soldiers" had been killed in the fierce fighting.From Tolo News:
Spokesman for the Kandahar Governor Samim Khpolwak said on Tuesday night: "The attackers entered Shaheed Padshah School and Teachers Training Center and started attacking the police and army compound."

Meanwhile, sources told TOLOnews on condition of anonymity on Tuesday night that the attackers entered the airport from its fifth gate, which is under tight security. They said no one can enter without showing an ID card.

Reports reaching us from the border town of Dhobley indicate that pro-Islamic state fighters have wrested full control of a village lies near Somali-Kenyan border. The militants who were heavily armed with machine-guns and rocked propelled grenades reportedly seized Tulo-Barwaqo peacefully after Jubbaland forces have withdrawn from the village.

The capture of Tulo Barwaqo becomes the first ground in Somalia taken by the militants who recently switched allegiance to the Islamic state in Iraq and Syria (ISIL).

In recent months, there has been a growing row that broke out within the Al Shabaab over whether to maintain ties to Al Qaeda or switch allegiance to Islamic State (IS).

Nine people were killed in fighting that knocked out Khoms power station and cut power to much of the region including parts of Tripoli.

Three people were also wounded in exchanges which set fire to the fuel tanks that power to 450 MW power station, which also burns gas. The dead and wounded were taken to Khoms Teaching Hospital.

The battle was between the Khoms Military Council and a militia calling itself the “Truth Martyrs” which is believed to be associated with the Al-Maawal family, three members of which are reported to have been killed in the exchanges.

State power utility GECOL is still working to make repairs and bring the station completely back on-line. It announced this morning that its technicians had got three of the five generating units working again but warned that it was likely that there would be further power cuts.

Palestinian Authority news agency Ma'an reports that 14 Gazans are "missing," following the flooding of a smuggling tunnel with seawater by Egyptian military forces.

Q: what do you call 14 Hamas tunnel rats drowned in their own tunnels?
A: a good start.

Gazan rescue teams rescued seven tunnel workers, but were unable to locate 14 others. The incident occurred on Tuesday morning near Rafah, on the Egypt-Gaza border. Initial reports that the Civil Defense had established contact with the 14 turned out to be false.

Ma'an managed to indirectly blame the apparent deaths on Israel, saying that the smuggling tunnels under the Egyptian border "have served as a lifeline to the outside world for [Gaza] since Israel imposed a crippling siege on the coastal enclave in 2007."

Too bad the Gazooks didn't consider in advance what would happen if they abused the Egyptians' trust...

Ma'an acknowledged that the tunnels enable not only the delivery of food, medicine and other supplies – hundreds of truckloads of which Israel allows in daily – but also weapons. They also serve as an important source of tax revenue for Hamas.

So in other words Hamas is lying. Again.

The tunnels also serve as a conduit for anti-Egyptian terrorists to Sinai. As a result, Egypt has flooded hundreds of tunnels in the area, and has cleared out thousands of residents to build a 500-meter-wide buffer zone. Just yesterday, four Egyptian policemen were killed and four others were wounded when a roadside bomb was detonated under their armored vehicle in Rafah.

Time for the new canal from the Med to the Gulf of Aqaba...

Israel, of course, is particularly sensitive to Hamas tunnels, hundreds of which have been built under the Israel-Gaza border over the years. IDF soldier Gilad Shalit was kidnapped in June 2006 through one of them – and two soldiers were killed at the same time. Other murderous attacks have also been waged in Israel by terrorists arriving via such tunnels.

Over a year ago, it was discovered that Hamas had planned a mega-terror attack by sending 200 fighters through the tunnels into Israel to simultaneously attack various targets throughout southern Israel, including kidnapping and murdering civilians.

Dig a ditch from the Med to south of Gaza. Make it big enough to take medium-sized commercial vessels. Build a port on both sides at the end - one in Egypt, the other in Israel. That will pay to keep the channel open, and enrich both Egypt and Israel. It will also end the Gaza tunneling permanently.

[DAILYTRUST.NG] Benin Republic President Boni Yayi said his country was ready to send 800 troops to join Nigeria and other neighbouring nations in the ongoing fight against the Boko Haram... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... insurgency.

Yayi stated this at the Presidential Villa in Abuja after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday during his one-day state visit to Nigeria.

Addressing State House correspondents, Yayi assured that Benin's 800 troops were battle ready and were awaiting their deployment.

Speaking through an interpreter, Yayi stated that Buhari took over the mantle of government "at a time terrorism occasioned by the activities of Boko Haram is high."

"To fight terrorism, Benin is ready to send about 800 men to join the men that are already prepared to fight terrorism. The team is battle ready for deployment. The will power is there and Benin is committed to deploying the men. Benin will always remain on the side of Nigeria in its trying times," he said.

Saudi Arabia, which is leading an Arab coalition fighting to end an Iranian-backed coup in Yemen, is planning to send a force to combat terror in Aden, Yemen’s provisional capital, a Saudi newspaper has reported.

The move had been planned a few weeks ago and is not a response to the assassination of Aden’s governor Jaafar Mohammed Saad, 'Makka' daily said.

“The force will be deployed in Aden in the next few days.

“It is intended to fight terror and bolster Arab and Yemen forces there,” the paper said.

It quoted Saudi sources as saying Riyadh decided to send the force as part of its “leading role” in the Arab coalition to maintain security and peace in liberated areas.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other Arab members of the coalition already have troops in Aden, the temporary home of the legitimate government.

Saudi Arabia is the dominant member in the Arab coalition launching a military campaign to quell the coup and restore the legitimate regime.

The other members are the Gulf states of the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain as well as Egypt, Morocco, Jordan and Sudan.

Arab coalition warplanes launched more than 60 raids against coup rebel positions in the central Marib governorate in one day while they continued their attacks against the insurgents in Taiz.

The raids targeted positions of the Iranian-backed Houthis and their allies in the Western and Southern hills surrounding Sirwah town in Marib, the Saudi 'Al Arabiya' news network said.

In a report from conflict-battered Yemen, it said coalition jets also pounded rebel targets in the Southwestern Taiz city to back an offensive by the national army and the resistance to expel the insurgents from the governorate.

“The raids in Taiz targetted the Army Brigade 35 camp, the central prison area and the Eastern outskirts of the city,” the report said.

It quoted military sources as saying the army and resistance fighters pressed on with their ground attacks against the rebels in Taiz and advanced in Al Rahida and Dhabab fronts on Tuesday.

In Merais front in the Southern Al Dale governorate, the resistance repulsed an attack by the Houthis and their allies after heavy fighting.

[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Suspected gunnies blew up a deserted Catholic church Wednesday in Yemen's second city Aden, where Islamist gunnies have gained ground in recent months, security officials and witnesses said.

Four gunnies shouting "holy shit! Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) detonated explosives at the church in the Muala residential district of the southern port city.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but a police source said there were suspicions gunnies from either the Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group or Al-Qaeda were behind the destruction of the church.

Residents said the kaboom completely destroyed the small church, which was attached to a cemetery and built in the 1950s when Aden was a British protectorate.

Like many other Christian churches in Aden, the building had been abandoned for many years, residents said.

Of the 22 churches that operated in Aden when the city was a British colony before 1967, only a few remain open, used rarely by foreign workers and African refugees.

In September, masked arsonists torched the Saint Joseph Catholic church in the central Crater neighborhood of Aden.

Al-Qaeda gunnies have been accused of several attacks since pro-government forces pushed Iran-backed rebels out of the battle-scarred city in July with support from a Saudi-led coalition.

The jihadist network's Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...branch, regarded by Washington as its deadliest, has exploited the fighting to boost its presence in swathes of the south and east of the country.

[Ynet] A Minnesota man was charged on Wednesday as the tenth person in an alleged conspiracy that encouraged young Somali-American men to travel overseas to join holy warrior group Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... and he planned to make the trip himself, court papers showed.

Since 2007, US prosecutors say, dozens of people from Minnesota, many young Somali-American men among them, have traveled or attempted to travel overseas to support Islamic State or al-Shabaab... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord..., a Somalia-based holy warrior group.

Abdirizak Mohammed Warsame was incarceratedKeep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! on Wednesday, according to jail records in Anoka County, where he is being held. Warsame, 20, is from Eagan, a community just south of Minneapolis, local media say.

The criminal complaint filed in federal court said Warsame was one of several young men from Minnesota's Somali-American community who last year began conspiring to travel to Syria to fight with Islamic State, which controls large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria.

o He posted names and addresses of 100 members of the military on social media, calling for them to be killed, prosecutors said

o Grand jury charged McNeil with three counts each of solicitation of a crime of violence and threatening military personnel

o US Attorney's Office front man said prosecutors are not aware of any attacks on service members named

Assistant U.S. Attorney General John Carlin said McNeil 'solicited the murder of members of our military by disseminating violent rhetoric, circulating detailed U.S. military personnel information, and explicitly calling for the killing of American service members in their homes and communities.'

'ISIL and its followers continue to use social media in an attempt to incite violence around the world, including in the United States,' he continued.

'The National Security Division's highest priority is counterterrorism and we will use all of our tools to disrupt threats and acts of violence against our military members and their families.'

The government said McNeil, a hospital employee, posted a file on his Tumblr account with the names and addresses of military personnel.

The posting urged 'Brothers in America' to 'kill them in their own lands, behead them in their own homes, stab them to death as they walk their streets thinking that they are safe,' according to the indictment.

Tobin said the information came from the Islamic State overseas, and McNeil reposted it.

He said he did not know where the information originated.

Mike Tobin, a front man for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Cleveland, kept in touch with the world by Obamaphone,...was ruled by a Democrat machine from 1942 through 1971. After the river caught fire during the administration of Carl Stokes they tried a Republican, then went back to being Democrats when the party hacked up Dennis Kucinich ..., said prosecutors are not aware of any attacks on the service members named.

McNeil was locked awayBook 'im, Mahmoud! on November 11 after federal prosecutors charged him with a related count of solicitation to commit a crime of violence, court records show.

A call on Tuesday to his court-appointed attorney, Nathan A. Ray, rang unanswered, and Ray did not respond to an email seeking comment on McNeil's behalf.

On October 3, McNeil allegedly posted the address of the Navy Seal he believed killed al-Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden... who doesn't live anywhere anymore... in 2011, calling him the 'number one target.'

'While we aggressively defend First Amendment rights, the individual arrested went far beyond free speech by reposting names and addresses of 100 U.S. service members, all with the intent to have them killed,' said Stephen D Anthony, special agent in charge of the FBI's Cleveland office.

'We will remain vigilant in our efforts to stop those who wish to support these despicable acts.'

Each solicitation count carries a sentence of 20 years in prison, and each threat count carries a maximum five-year sentence.

#10
Seeing another news, ahem, oversight is of an incident in San Bernadino 2 days ago where a man who is now believed to have been radicalized attacked another man with a sword, spouting the usual Islamist crap. The perps name is Mohamed Ahmed Elrawi. Google it and you'll see the CBSLocal is the only news source reporting this.

VICTORVILLE — A member of the Muslim community in the High Desert who attended the same mosque as a man arrested for allegedly chasing his neighbor with a sword early Tuesday told the Daily Press on Wednesday he did not believe the man was a radicalized Muslim.

Noel Khan told the Daily Press he had interacted with Mohamed Ahmed Elrawi, 57, several times when both men attended services at the High Desert Islamic Society mosque in Victorville. Khan said Elrawi has a history of erratic behavior and he believed Monday’s incident was driven primarily by mental instability rather than any religious or radicalization factors.

“Iman (Yousef Farha) said Elrawi was not mentally stable,” Khan said, referring to Farha’s comments to the Daily Press on Tuesday. “No one in the Muslim community (who knew Elrawi) would disagree with that.”

Elrawi was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder early Tuesday after he got into a dispute with the victim,

Perhaps Elrawi could provide a list of folks at the Mosque who are not mentally stable, rather than wait until after they attempt to kill someone. Barring a list I'm going to have to assume the guy running the place should be talking to the FBI.

[CHICAGO.SUNTIMES] First, Jonas Edmonds dropped off his cousin at Midway Airport to catch a flight to Egypt.

Then, he returned to his cousin's Aurora home to collect the uniforms Hasan Edmonds once wore as a member of the Illinois National Guard.

After the feds tossed in the slammerKeep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! him, Jonas Edmonds lied about his cousin's trip to Egypt. He told authorities, "He's going to visit a friend or wherever he's going. I don't know. Somebody. He's trying to move there."

But Jonas Edmonds knew that Hasan Edmonds had really set out to join Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... terrorists, according to Jonas Edmonds' 22-page plea deal with prosecutors. Not only that, but Jonas Edmonds had planned to disguise himself in Hasan Edmonds' uniform and attack the Guard base in Joliet where Hasan Edmonds had trained. He had hoped to kill as many as 120 soldiers, prosecutors have said.

Jonas Edmonds pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiring to provide material support to snuffies and lying to the feds about international terrorism. He now faces as many as 23 years in prison after admitting his guilt in front of U.S. District Judge John Lee. His sentencing hearing is set for Jan. 27.

Jonas Edmonds appeared in court dressed in orange jail scrubs. The hearing was not attended by his family. His lawyer, James Graham, said his wife and kids support him.

"He and his family are just happy to put this behind him," Graham said.

Graham also emphasized that Jonas Edmonds is not cooperating with prosecutors, in spite of his plea. Hasan Edmonds is set to plead guilty Monday.

Authorities found an Illinois National Guard drill schedule, as well as an "army jacket," "army shorts" and "military brown boots" when they searched Jonas Edmonds' townhouse, records show. He was arrested without incident March 25, around the same time authorities arrested his cousin at Midway Airport carrying a black backpack. Records show the backpack was filled with all-weather and camouflage notepads, a camera, a Koran and two books: "Fortress of the Muslim" and "The Covenant of the Flame."

MARDAN: The security forces arrested over 300 suspected persons, including 16 Afghan nationals, during a joint search and strike operation in rural areas of Mardan, officials said on Tuesday.

They said that the search and strike operation which was launched on Monday and continued for the second consecutive day on Tuesday, was led by General Officer Commanding, Malakand, Maj-Gen Nadir Khan and Deputy Inspector General of Police, Mardan division, Saeed Khan Wazir.

Later, Mardan District Police Officer Faisal Shehzad, talking to media persons, said that they had arrested about 327 suspected persons, including 16 illegally staying Afghan nationals, and persons involved in various crimes.

He disclosed that the areas where the search and strike operation was carried out included Par Hoti, Bashkhali, Gujraat, Iranabad, Chora, Bhaijan, Surakh Dheray, Katakhet, Barikab, Galyara and localities adjoining the city.

He said they had also established checkposts jointly manned by police and army personnel at different points of the district and around 500 vehicles were searched with the purpose to take suspected passengers into custody if there were any inside those vehicles.

Mr Shehzad said that the arrested persons were being interrogated and after a through scrutiny those would be set free who were not found guilty of any offence. He said the ongoing search and strike operation would continue for a week to purge the district of criminals and their facilitators.

[Hurriyet] The Turkish Armed Forces staged a cross-border aerial campaign in northern Iraq to hit outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) targets in the Kandil Mountains amid tensions with the central government in Baghdad over The Sick Man of Europe Turkey...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....'s deployment of troops near djinn-infested Mosul... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...According to a statement by the Turkish General Staff, 10 F-16 fighter jets launched an attack between 10 p.m. and 10:50 p.m. on Dec. 8.

"PKK targets in the Kandil, Hakurk, Zap and Avasîn-Basyan regions in northern Iraq were destroyed in an aerial campaign," the statement said.

The air bombardments "destroyed" targets of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in several northern Iraqi regions including its main stronghold on Qandil mountain, the army said in a statement. Dahmat Agit, a PKK front man in Iraq, said the strikes started late on Tuesday at around 11:00 pm (2000 GMT).

"They lasted about an hour and targeted three villages," he said, adding that no PKK members were killed in the raid. A local Kurdish official also said the strikes had caused no casualties but he reported serious damage to water and electricity infrastructure and crops.

Separately, a policeman was killed by sniper fire as he tried to defuse an bomb in the Sur district of Diyarbakir province, which has been under military curfew for eight days.

The Sick Man of Europe Turkey...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... has been waging a relentless offensive against PKK strongholds in the southeast of the country and in northern Iraq following the collapse in July of a two-year truce with rebels. In response the PKK -- blacklisted as a terrorist organization by Turkey and much of the international community -- has hit back hard, killing dozens of police and soldiers in almost daily bomb and gun attacks.

[ARA News] ERBIL – The extremist group of Islamic State (ISIS) has executed four of its own militants in the eastern Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor on charges of “treason”, local sources reported on Wednesday.

Two of the militants were beheaded for “leaking security information to the Syrian army”, the others were accused of trying to escape the battlefront in Deir ez-Zor.

“ISIS beheaded the four militants in a public square in central Deir ez-Zor and left their dead bodies on the ground until Wednesday midnight,” media activist Saray Addin told ARA News.

One of the beheaded militants was identified as Rami al-Sayo, a member of the ISIS-led Islamic Police. Another militant was identified as Hamid Madani, a member of al-Husba committee which is responsible for collecting taxes from shop owners in Deir ez-Zor.

“The other two militants, whose identities remained unknown, were executed for trying to escape a battlefield in the countryside of Deir ez-Zor,” Addin said.

The source pointed out that ISIS started executing its own militants in public to show its strict commitment to its own rules in front of people.

(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – The commander of Anbar Operations Maj. Gen. Ismail Mahlawi announced on Wednesday the killing of 65 ISIS elements in an aerial bombing launched by the international coalition in northern Ramadi.

Mahlawi said in an interview for IraqiNews.com, “The international coalition warplanes, supported by Iraqi security forces on the ground, were able to bomb a number of targets and gatherings of the elements of the ISIS organization in Albu Faraj and Albu Dyab areas north of Ramadi.”

Mahlawi added that “The bombing resulted in the killing of 65 ISIS elements, in addition to causing serious material losses in the ranks of the organization”

(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – A security source in Anbar announced on Wednesday, that a security force had killed 11 ISIS elements in a military operation in Husaybah al-Sharqiya area.

The source said in an interview for IraqiNews.com, “The Rapid Intervention Forces repelled an ISIS attack in Husaybah al-Sharqiya area in the western axis,” explaining that “The Third Regiment Forces launched an attack on ISIS, resulting in the killing of six members of the organization and wounding others.”

(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – On Tuesday, a source within the police force said, that a woman had been killed in an armed attack in al-Husseiniyah District in northern Baghdad.

The source, who requested anonymity, reported for IraqiNews.com, “This evening, unidentified gunmen opened fire from their machine-guns against a woman in front of her house in the district of al-Husseiniyah in northern Baghdad, resulting in her immediate death.”

The source added, “A security force transferred the dead to the forensic medicine authority, while opened an investigation into the incident to determine the party that stands behind it.”

[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A suicide kaboom claimed by the Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group killed at least eight people near a Shiite mosque in eastern Baghdad on Wednesday, security and medical officials said.

The blast in the Obeidi area also maimed at least 19 people, the officials said.

ISIS claimed the attack in a statement posted online, saying a bomber identified as "Abu Salem" carried it out with an explosives-rigged belt.

ISIS considers Shiites to be heretics, and frequently targets them with bombings in crowded areas of the capital.

ISIS overran large areas north and west of Baghdad last year, and while Iraqi forces have retaken significant territory north of the capital, much of the country's west remains under bully boy control.

Bombings in Baghdad have become less frequent since the ISIS offensive last year, apparently because the jihadists have been occupied with fighting elsewhere.

[IsraelTimes] Suspects found to be illegal entrants from West Bank city of Jenin

Police officers in the northern Israeli city of Afula incarcerated... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... three Paleostinians on Wednesday evening who were found carrying large knives and had no form of ID.

Local residents alerted police to the three, saying they behaved in a suspicious manner.

All three Paleostinians were in Israel illegally, police said.

After the calls began to come in from residents, officers launched a thorough search of the area. When they located the suspects, the officers saw one of the three immediately throw away what turned out to be a large knife.

A search of the three turned up two more identical knives. During questioning, it emerged that two of the Paleostinians were minors and all were residents of the West Bank city of Jenin. The knives had a blade 23 centimeters (9 inches) in length.

Good kitchen knives are expensive. After this round of excitements, the economy should get a nice little boost as all the stolen knives are replaced.

He was said to be the cousin of another Paleostinian attacker rubbed out in Hebron on Monday after stabbing an Israeli.

Hebron, in the southern West Bank, has been a flashpoint in more than two months of Paleostinian knife, gun and car-ramming attacks.

Tensions between Israeli settlers living under heavy military guard in the heart of the city and Paleostinian residents have been high.

Later in the evening, assailants shot at a car near the West Bank town of Tulkarem, wounding two Israelis, the army said.

The pair, a man who suffered serious wounds and a woman with lighter injuries, were taken to hospital, Israel's Magen David Adom emergency medical service said. The man was in stable, pH balanced condition.

Doing something useful to protect their country from real bad guys for a change, instead of picking a fight with Israel.

[AnNahar] Hizbullah...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... on Wednesday killed an al-Qaeda commander and eight of his men in an attack on their convoy along the Lebanese-Syrian border, the group's media said.

Al-Manar television said the convoy of al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli sh-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... Front fighters had been traveling on the outskirts of the restive Lebanese border town of Arsal when Hizbullah struck.

"The resistance (Hezbollah) fighters targeted the convoy of al-Nusra Front official Abu Firas al-Jubbeh... after carefully monitoring its movements," the station said.

Abu Firas and three Islamist fighters were killed immediately and when al-Nusra holy warriors tried to retrieve the bodies, Hizbullah opened fire anew killing the other five.

Al-Manar broadcast footage of the arid, rocky terrain where the fighters were targeted and said festivities also erupted between the two sides during which automatic weapons and mortar rounds were used.

The station said that the Lebanese army also fired on al-Nusra positions in the area.

According to state-run National News Agency, the army fired heavy-caliber artillery at movements and gatherings of holy warriors in Wadi Hmeid and Wadi al-Kheil in Arsal's outskirts, reportedly causing casualties.

The festivities come just eight days after al-Nusra freed 16 Lebanese soldiers and police it captured more than a year ago from Arsal.

The swap deal partially ended a long-running hostage crisis, but nine other servicemen taken prisoner at the same time are still held by the Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group.

Arsal lies along Leb's border with Syria and it hosts many Syrian refugees as well as rebel fighters in the surrounding countryside.

[ARA News] ALEPPO – At least nine militants of al-Qaeda branch in Syria, al-Nusra Front, were killed in renewed clashes with Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo, military sources reported on Wednesday.

Clashes broke out between the Kurdish fighters and Nusra militants in Afrin region in the northern countryside of Aleppo, where Kurds pounded Nusra positions with heavy weapons.

Similar clashes took place in the vicinity of Sheikh Maqsoud district in Aleppo city, where al-Nusra Front was forced to retreat under YPG’s heavy blows.

“A total of nine corpses of al-Qaeda (Nusra Front) terrorists were found subsequent to clashes in Afrin and Sheikh Maqsoud,” YPG spokesman in Aleppo Ammar Roumi told ARA News.

“Despite the heavy military support for al-Nusra by the Islamic Movement of Ahrar al-Sham, our (YPG) units were able to impede their progress in the province (Aleppo) and forced them to evacuate some of their strongholds,” Roumi reported.

Two Kurdish fighters were hardly injured during the clashes on Wednesday, according to the YPG spokesman.

“We were able to destroy two Nusra cars loaded with heavy machine guns in the clashes,” the source added.

Militants of al-Nusra Front have been shelling the Sheikh Maqsoud district in Aleppo for weeks. Thousands of Kurdish civilians are stranded in the district amid intensifying clashes between the YPG units and the Islamist groups on the environs of Sheikh Maqsoud.

Hurrah -- the ransoms have been deposited! The brothers will feast tonght, and all the sisters will get sexy nighties!

[ARA News] KOBANE – The Islamic State group (ISIS) released on Wednesday a new batch of Assyrian Christian hostages who have been captured by the group in the northeastern Syrian province of Hasakah in February.

The Assyrian Network for Human Rights (ANHR) said in a statement that 25 Christian hostages were released by ISIS and arrived to their hometown of Tel Temir in the countryside of Hasakah on Wednesday.

“A bus carrying 25 Assyrian hostages has arrived in Tel Temir. They were received by the archbishop Afram Ithnael and a number of Assyrian figures,” the network reported.

The source added that 14 of the hostages were from the village of Tel Shamiram, 10 others were from the village of Tel Jazeera and one of them was from the village of Qabr Shamiya. Those villages are located in the vicinity of Tel Temir town.

In February, militants of the Islamic State stormed a number of Christian villages in the area. Subsequent to fierce clashes with Kurdish forces and allied Assyrian fighters, the radical group took more than 230 civilians as hostages before its withdrawal.

ISIS has earlier released several batches of Christian hostages after negotiations with Assyrian figures, supported by Arab tribal mediators in Hasakah province.

[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Busloads of Syrians including rebel fighters left the last murderous Moslem-held area of Homs on Wednesday under a rare local truce agreement in Syria's nearly five-year conflict that will shore up government control over the city.

The rebels and their families are being moved to murderous Moslem-held areas of the northwest near the Turkish border under the deal, an example of the type of local truce U.S. President Barack ObamaJedi mind meld... has said could happen in Syria more frequently.

Homs was a centre of the uprising against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-AssadBefore going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now.... The deal follows a major Syrian army ground offensive to the north of the city backed by Russian air strikes.

Witnesses saw 15 buses leave the area. Homs governor Talal al-Barazi told news hounds 300 fighters were on board, together with 400 members of their families. The fighters took with them light weapons, he said.

The deal echoes a local ceasefire agreed in September elsewhere in Syria under which rebel fighters were supposed to be transferred to Idlib, though it has yet to be fully implemented.

Several buses left the Homs district of Waer early on Wednesday and others were queueing up to leave on its outskirts, witnesses said. Children on buses waiting to leave peaked around the drawn curtains and aid workers handed out juice.

Barazi said the buses would make a stop in Hama province where rebels who wished to could disembark, before continuing to Idlib, a province that is a stronghold of bandidos murderous Moslems including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.

He described the rebels who left as "murderous Moslems who reject the agreement", saying they would leave with their families.

"The Waer neighborhood arrangements will be completely safe and there will be no weapons in Waer after the implementation of the agreement," he said adding security forces would go back to work in the area and would be the only ones armed.

[AnNahar] Security forces announced Monday the arrest of two Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... jihadists who had plotted to carry out attacks inside Leb.

"The runaway Jihad Ahmed al-Ghazi was tossed in the slammerDrop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! by the Intelligence Directorate in the North over his ties to terrorist groups led by the runaways Mohammed Ahmed al-Satem, Oday Ahmed al-Moussa and others who move between Leb and Syria," the army said in a statement.

"They tried to help him enter Syria to fight alongside the terrorist groups there," it added.

The detainee confessed that under al-Satem's leadership, small groups were formed in the northern region of Wadi Khaled with the aim of targeting the Lebanese army.

They sought to "attack troops and create an appropriate atmosphere for the entry of the IS group into Leb through setting up a security zone connected to Khirbet Daoud in order to seize control of Wadi Khaled," the army statement said.

The IS cells "purchased weapons and prepared a number of caves to be launchpads for their operations," it added.

Among the arms they bought was a "mortar cannon aimed at targeting the army barracks in Wadi Khaled."

The detainee al-Ghazi also confessed that he was tasked with "carrying out a suicide kaboom in Tripoli...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... or Beirut."

"Along with Tareq Mohammed Obeid, they tried to enter into Arsal and then into its outskirts with the aim of joining IS holy warriors there," the army added.

Meanwhile,...back at the pond, the enormous newt was trying to decide if Gloria was edible... the General Security announced the arrest of the Syrian M. M. on charges of "involvement in terrorist activities, belonging to the terrorist IS group, and recruiting holy warriors to be sent to Syria to fight alongside the group."

"He also confessed to preparing to set up armed cells to carry out acts of sabotage in Leb in coordination with a Lebanese IS official in (Syria's) Raqa," a General Security statement said.

The man also took part in "overseeing and coordinating the moves of the holy warriors in the latest Tripoli battles against the Lebanese army, in addition to harboring gunnies fleeing the aforementioned festivities."

On Thursday, the army reportedly arrested four IS suspects after intercepting their van on the Zalka-Beirut highway.

Dozens of suspects were arrested across the country in recent weeks.

The massive crackdown followed an IS suicide kaboom in the southern Beirut suburb of Bourj al-Barajneh that killed 44 people and maimed around 240 others.

[Ynet] The United States and its allies staged 26 air strikes against the Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... hard boy group in Iraq and Syria on Tuesday, the coalition leading the operations said in a statement.

In Iraq, 22 strikes near 10 different cities destroyed several buildings, weapons facilities and other targets. Four strikes in Syria hit oil well-heads and other targets, according to the statement released on Wednesday.

A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.